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Yummy Bones owner Robert Meredith credits his culinary prowess to learning from his grandmother's southern recipes while growing up on his grandparents' farm in Dousman.(Photo11: Geoff Bruce/Now News Group)Buy Photo

PORT WASHINGTON – It might be true to say that it all started under a tent in the parking lot of a local gas station.

But it’s also true that Robert Meredith’s path to his pair of BBQ restaurants started much earlier.

Meredith first set up his stand at the Lighthouse Mobil station at North Wisconsin Street and East Seven Hills Ride, just across from the Port Washington Park & Ride, in July 2013.

“I set up a tent outside the gas station, and we broke out some brats and burgers and pulled pork and mac and cheese,” Meredith said. “We did that for about three weeks.”

In that short time, Meredith made enough of an impression to be invited down to the village of Greendale’s 75th anniversary celebration. Four hectic days and nights followed as Meredith found himself plunged neck-deep into a profession that had previously just been a hobby.

“My story is that I was raised by my grandmother, and she was from Mississippi, so she knew that southern cooking,” Meredith said. “So growing up as a kid, that’s how I ate.”

Meredith was raised by his grandparents at their farm in Dousman and picked up on his grandmother’s cooking from there.

“They always had these big barbecues, and I’m this little kid growing up and seeing this going on all the time,” Meredith said. “So the cooking, it was no formal training. It was just how Grandma cooked. I learned to do that. I’ve always cooked for family and friends.”

A former truck driver, Meredith moved to Port Washington in November 2012, looking for his next step in life.

And so, it was in the Lighthouse Mobil station parking lot that Meredith found his first fans, one of whom invited him down to that Greendale festival.

“I rented a food trailer. It was crazy because we were leaving the house at 9 a.m., down there until 9 p.m., then I was cooking all night,” Meredith said. “They wanted me to open up a restaurant there. My thought when I was doing this was that I was just going to cater. I had no interest in a restaurant at that time.”

Yummy Bones owner Robert Meredith started serving his signature meats, such as the pulled pork, at a tent in the Lighthouse Mobil gas station in Port Washington.(Photo11: Submitted)

That weekend in Greendale, a Port Washington native approached Meredith about his first catering event.

“She invited me to her place to do her end-of-the-summer customer appreciation party. She had 180 guests there,” Meredith said. “That led to I don’t know how many different weddings and parties and such. Suddenly, I’m looking at all of these people who want me to cater for them.”

It was a whirlwind of a start for Meredith’s skydive into the professional culinary world and, less than eight months after serving from the gas station, Yummy Bones BBQ opened in Port Washington in February 2014.

“It was fun. I believe in, you know, you find something that you’re passionate about and it’s not really a job to you anymore,” Meredith said.

Since opening in 2014, Yummy Bones has moved to a new home on North Franklin Street and has now opened a second location in Fond du Lac.

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Yummy Bones moved to its current location on North Franklin Street in June 2016.(Photo11: Geoff Bruce/Now News Group)

How the second restaurant came to be is a familiar story.

“We had a customer come down — they were here several times last summer — and they kind of just sent like a fan mail saying, ‘Oh, my God, we could use one of these up here,’” Meredith said. “So we started talking, and so they invested in what we are doing.”

The Fond du Lac location opened in July and celebrated its grand opening Aug. 8.

Yummy Bones features many of the favorites that fans of BBQ can expect when checking out a restaurant. The pulled pork is a favorite, as are the ribs, which are behind the restaurant's name.

Meredith points specifically to the brisket and a secret part of his cooking process as being unique to his establishment that sets it apart from the competition.

“A lot of people say they haven’t had this kind of brisket around here. That is our main seller. I think the difference is my seasoning blend, the rub and the way I cook it,” Meredith said. “It’s slower; it’s a two-day process. I cook it, then I wrap it up and cool it, and then I’ll do something different to it the next day.”

The wings at Yummy Bones are both smoked and grilled so as to give them a combination of flavors. The restaurant also has five signature sauces.

“Those are all my sauces. When I was first getting started, I went to a food show down in Milwaukee, and I met a guy from Chicago. He had a totally different sauce than what I had ever tasted, and I ordered a gallon of his knowing that I had a food sampling going on in a couple of weeks,” Meredith said. “It got close to the date, and he hadn’t sent it. So it’s the night before my event, I had never made a sauce before, and I got online and I must’ve chosen, like, five or seven different recipes. So I picked and chose from each, and now it’s my Yummy Bones sauce.”

The sides at Yummy Bones include green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, southern baked beans and the new Q-Chips, which are kettle chips finished with Meredith’s dry rub. A staple from both the Lighthouse station and the Dousman farm remains as well.

“The homemade mac and cheese, that is to die for,” Meredith said. “It was my grandma’s recipe, and I’ve tweaked it maybe a little bit.”

Five years after setting up his stand, Robert Meredith has two restaurants and a ton of fans. But he’s not satisfied just yet; more growth, including a food truck, more catering and further expansion, is on his mind.

“You’ve got to strike while the iron’s hot. There’s a nice buzz about it, and I think there’s a huge opportunity in a bunch of different areas, whether it be south into Milwaukee or north into the Fox Valley area,” Meredith said. “I definitely want to go west. Growing up out in Dousman, personally I would love to get something out there.”

Yummy Bones BBQ

ADDRESS: 201 N. Franklin St., Port Washington

PHONE NUMBER: 262-268-9221

WEBSITE: www.YummyBones.com

PRICE RANGE: From $7.99 for a pulled chicken sandwich up to $21.99 for a full rack of ribs

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